Something that has always been a part struggle as I get older is finding a group. Not just a one shot. But a real campaign group. With my schedule and living on the West Coast. And to be honest I am use to a gaming on every other Saturday. I know that might be old school. But beside when I was in grade school for a sleepover. I never played during a week. For my mind set weekdays is for school and sleep and some TV hehe. When Civid happen Before then I never thought of playing during the weekdays. And boy did I do a lot of gaming during that time. But now we are back to a similar normal life. So my weekdays is too busy or too tired to even think of gaming. So besides solo gaming I have tried. But the thrill of a group it is ok. So I have thought about play by post. But my experience with playing what will is beyond zero. I got some serious questions. How does combat and a social reaction work. I have a hard time seeing how that could work well. I feel like I want it to work but I have a hard time seeing how it works. Help me I want this to work.

Hi all, I'm looking for some input about how you great people think about magic in RPGs. I'm about to run the final session of Dragons of Stormwreck Isle (D&D introductory adventure) but the question applies in any game involving magic, I think. Basically my players need to stop a ritual being conducted by the bbeg (young dragon who wants huge power) who is drawing magic from this island steeped in arcane power, from the Dragon Star reaching its zenith, and from ancient incantations. The cap is the sacrifice of a young, good dragon the PC's are trying to rescue. The setup is great: approaching midnight on a rocky spire jutting out of the ocean, an array of dragon statues and bones are carefully arrayed in a detailed pattern around the victim hidden in a stone pit. I see it as lit by torches at first, but as the ritual starts and the bbeg gathers power into the circle, there will be glows and crackles of lightning and arcane energy bursting all around. A ritual caster has to gather and control power for some time before releasing it into their spell. The rules in d&d are lacklustre about stopping a ritual, though: "if the ritual is disrupted, the spell that is being cast fails". Hardly dramatic. Of course, now they would have a frustrated bbeg mad at them, but - - meh. My feeling is that with a bunch of power being manipulated in a big ritual, interrupting it should be dangerous for everybody involved, not just the caster but also the disruptor, victim, bystanders,.... And the danger should increase the longer the ritual goes on before it's broken. So I'm wondering if anyone has handled things like this or if you have ideas about it. I'm thinking about possible mechanics for determining outcomes, wild magic effects, damage spread - anything to make this more clutch, dramatic and fun. PS I've already laid the groundwork with a smaller ritual used to destroy a cursed object earlier in the adventure, so the players will be expecting this.

Proactive Roleplaying is "The Natural End Point of Roleplaying" - Kenneth Hite

I've been thinking about beginner - expert scaling of classes and backgrounds for role play and collaborative storytelling. The gist is I think some classes/background/backstory choices can bake in both a connection between mechanics and roleplay and/or support group play. Other choices such as the loner rogue have a tradition of being problematic. I wonder if the structure of table talk in proactive gaming is ideal for allowing the more challenging or problematic choices to work in a group game. (e.g. untrusting loner, antisocial hermit, sneaky rogue that wanders off, rogue that steals stuff, warlock that made a deal with the devil, or Sam Riegels always afraid scout Snyx in Age of Umbra).

A little more vague than I usually talk about, but I've been reading a lot of Jon Peterson's historical D&D books (Matt Colville has this great video about "The Elusive Shift") and there more I read, and then talk with people about it, the more I feel that no one has an identical opinion on what a role playing game is, or many of the subjects that go along with it are. I'm pretty in favor of that---it's part of what makes the hobby so unique---but I do think it's interesting to compare notes. My favorite might be "what is the role of the GM?" I've seen (and participated in) a ton of discussions about it, and my opinion has changed a ton over the years, so I'm excited to hear what people's takes are. The GM has plenty of jobs---when I was younger, I was a big fan of Matt Colville's "the GM needs to make the players believe in the world" refrain I heard in a lot of his videos. I still do like that a lot, but as I've played and run more games, I mostly think about how a GM can facilitate the fun for the group. In my favorite way to play (although it isn't the preference of every group I run for) the GM's primary job is to create fun situations for a story that surprise everyone, including themself. But there's lots of little things I could add on to that! There's probably never going to be a perfect summary, and it's totally different depending on the type of game you want to run. What do you feel like your primary job is when you're running? Do you think that's different from what "the GM's" job should be, more broadly?